The ACU bag thread got me wondering... what do you do with the old uniforms? Either yours, if you were affiliated with the military at one time and now are not.... or your SO is, and he/she has too many, or perhaps they become outdated (BDUs for the AF, for example) or if you/your SO outgrows them.

DH has a few that don't fit him, then of course all the BDUs that can't be worn, now its ACUs (I think? I forget....) I think he just stuffed most of them in the back of the closet. I know some people donate... saw a ton at Airman's Attic once, they were overrun so I don't see the point of just throwing more their way.

I know some people mentioned they didn't like using them for bags as it was not the proper way to treat the uniform, but if you donated to a civilian business, they could end up being used in a way you didn't care for either.... so I was wondering if people who felt strongly enough about it that they kept them or did somethings specific with them... or not?

But either way, whether you like to recycle them into crafts or keep or donate, etc, what do you do with them?

There were a ton of uniforms at the salvation army down south it irritated dh cause the people donating it didn't bother to remove insignia either. Casey saw teen kid wearing a dress top with second class insignia and he got flaming pissed

I didn't think so either. I know the airman's attic on Lakenheath had a TON when I went in a couple years ago. Maybe because only other military were authorized to use it. I dunno

It used to be that you could buy it at the base thrift store. It's been within the last 2 years that it changed cause when i was of with Shane they were all over the thrift store then recently there were signs and they are no longer carried there.

Every base we've been to they've had a thrift store to donate them too. So we've always donated all DH's out grown uniforms. The older ones that are now out of date due to the new uniforms issues we've just cut them up, removed all name tapes and trashed them.

I've seen otudated uniforms at the thrift store. Navy used to have those solid blue work shirt/pants before they switched to the current camo. tons of those ended up in thrift stores because tehy were no longer current but i don't remember seeing any rank or anything on them.

we haven't done anything with DH's. he did sell a pair to someone else for cheap cause he couldnt wear them anymore. we just took off all the name tags and stuff first.

It used to be that you could buy it at the base thrift store. It's been within the last 2 years that it changed cause when i was of with Shane they were all over the thrift store then recently there were signs and they are no longer carried there.

Well our Airman's Attic was where you got things for free if you were E-5 and under. Never saw any at their thrift store though.

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To be honest, I've been out of the Navy for a little while now and I still have a huge bin in the garage filled with uniforms. DH does too. We've gotten rid of all of the uniforms that are no longer in circulation though (ie: utilities, working blues/whites, etc.). We have either trashed them or donated what we could. In either case, all insignia was removed. Anything that looked "civilian", like button-up shirts or slacks/Dickies went to a local donation center for veterans. There's also an Army/Navy store near us that takes uniform donations though we've never gone that route.

DH is retiring and we have years of old Marines BDU and Army BDUs before they switched over to the ACUs that we are wondering what the heck to do with beside put them away in the attic. DH has mentioned once or twice about taking a few that are still in decent shape and turning it into a timeline quilt chronicling his years in.

We rip them down the seams and trash them. Hubby said we arent supposed to donate them so I basically take the zips and toggles off so i can use it in other sewing projects and the rest just gets tags and badges off, ripped and trashed. We had to do quite a few uniforms when he came back from deployment.

When we do get rid of some we take the patches off and then throw them away. But we only throw away ones that got ruined. For those that we don't throw away, but DH doesn't use anymore, we store in a plastic tub in the attic.

DH's dad has a bunch in one of the spare closets from when he was in the Navy, too.